An encounter with a Raccoon

It was first day of fall, morning cold and quiet but not promising a fall weather this week as it will be warm on Friday from the weather forecast. I just got off my car from school, walk a few steps leading to the front porch, busy searching for my keys inside purse when something caught my eye.

Underneath the orange tree

It was so still and quiet as my senses alerted to what is in front of me. My eyes focused on a spot, a rhythmic movement, up and down, like heavy breathing and wonder what is going on. The sun shining through the orange tree leaves made it somewhat normal, nothing unusual to the surroundings as I see it everyday walking the same path before entering the house. When my eye caught something, camouflage with the grass and dirt underneath the orange tree, a raccoon lying down as if sleeping.



That is what I thought at first, a raccoon taking a break from whatever reason. This is the first time in my whole life, so close to this creature and it was exciting at the same time fear came to my mind. What if it sensed my presence and attack me? I have not much knowledge with raccoons as I am a city person.

Quietly, I took a few steps to check if the raccoon was sleeping. It sure does look like sleeping, eyes closed but the heavy breathing was somewhat unusual. I may sleep and breath heavily but never really see myself doing that because I was asleep. Just a funny thought to make myself relaxed.

Raccoon In action

Then it moved its head around as if she sensed me, opened her mouth and showed teeth like an inch length and half inch thick on the top part attached to the gums. Those were big teeth! Her eyes were soft and droopy, design with a black fur around the eyes which contrasts sharply with the surrounding white face coloring. While staring at the raccoon, it seems like raccoons wear a bandit's mask, making the animal gain a reputation of mischievous one. The slightly rounded ears are also bordered by white fur. It has short legs compared to their torso and it's bushy tail with rings around, the alternate shades of black and gray line for camouflage purposes maybe. That was the reason why it was hard to spot the raccoon right away as I walk in, my reasoning in my mind...



I must have disturbed the rest time of this raccoon, it stood up and steady itself before taking a step, wobbly and limping. As it stood, it has the height of a cat, even a bit taller than a cat. The middle part which is the stomach seems to be less bulgy but the claws were far more bigger and stronger than a cat's claw. It started walking away from me, not looking back, just keep going looking for a new place to hide and maybe die. The raccoon must have been hurting and starved for days by the look of it. I wonder if it came by the orange tree a few days ago and just never noticed it was there.

The raccoon that came by the orange tree, I never saw again. It must have went somewhere the bamboo trees to hide, away from me. It chose to wait, alone and hold on till it is time to go.

I decided to ask my friends about raccoons and gathered some ideas about this cute furry animals that came by one day and here is what I have come up with.

Raccoons as food, pet and fur

Raccoons maybe a pest to some but is edible for eating. There are a few recipes that calls for raccoon but barbecuing might be the best way to eat it. Barbecue is always a good way to try something different. Although, I have never tried a raccoon myself.

Some even want a raccoon as exotic pets. Raccoons are cute, furry and endearing. But raccoons have rabies that is a lethal disease caused by an agent infecting nerve cells, carried in the saliva and transmitted by bites. This is something to consider when planning to domesticate a raccoon as exotic pets.

The fur of raccoons is used for clothing, coats and caps especially during winter season when it is extremely cold. The tail is also use as an ornament and they can be expensive. Just think about how many raccoons killed for one coat?

Stinky Smell lingering around

A few days later, everybody in the house complains of a stinky smell, like something following each one of us and no way to escape from it. It was so strong by the front porch, where I last saw the raccoon. It is time to sleuth for the reason of such stinky smell. There, the raccoon lay just a few steps from the front porch, hidden under the bushy bamboo, covered with white chunky looking worm, squirming busily. There was nothing left on the raccoon's bony leg. His suffering ends...

Dodge Durango 98, frustrating wago

It is so frustrating when school starts but not your car. You get stressed and mad, not knowing what to do to get to school.

Started driving Dodge Durango 98 Model in the year 2006. It is a used one from first owner and I'm the second one. It exploded the first time we took it to a 20 minute drive since we bought the car. That was scary!!!


Dodge Durango 98 has many problems. One repair shop owner even said it is junk. Ouch! Made me feel like idiot buying a Dodge.

Year 2009, while heading to San Francisco Airport to pick a friend, the car started smoking like having barbecue. Something was wrong with it and have to turn back to home and get the other car. My friend waited for more than 2 hours and was fine.

After that, we brought the car to car shop, have it checked and radiator needs change. Well, it turned out that aside from the radiator, other parts need to be replaced as well and total bill was $1700. Ok. I am happy to get my life back, ops, my car back I mean. Days after the expensive repair, the car sensor malfunctioned and all lights are on in front of me. ABS, Brake, and all turns on all the time. Speedometer no longer work. That was a little scary to see the lights on while driving, thinking at all times there is something wrong with the car and ( cross my finger) will leave me stuck in the middle of the road when I do not know. Sure it did a few times cause me to wait for help because the car just won't turn over. It will try but die in a few seconds.

When it was time for DMV renewal, smog did not pass because sensor was not working. This is another car shop time. I found out that there are so many sensor in this car, which if it fails, cause so many problems just because the sensor failed. That doesn't mean something is wrong with the car but nobody can really tell, even the mechanic who is using high tech computers. I wonder if car makers are making it complicated to understand cars? I thought computers are supposed to help speed things up by diagnosing the problem. It doesn't seem to help at all.

Year 2010, the transmission failed? I do not know. This is what happens when the driver is not equipped with knowledge on cars. It makes me helpless and dependent to those who can understand cars. When I turn it on, it turns over but will keep at a low speed. If I try to speed up, the odometer works so hard that it almost gets to the red lines which scares me. This time, we decided to rebuilt the transmission for a total of $2900 including the sensor replaced with a 10,000 mile warranty and all lights in the front no longer stays on. Two weeks later, car won't start. Well, actually it tries to start and just die like the sound of someone dying. This time the tow truck has to come and tow it to the car shop, am hoping they can fix it with no more money to pay. It is a pain to keep paying for this car.

Have this really bad experience with Dodge Durango which the mechanic always tells me, Durango is a junk car. Ouch! What a mistake picking this car...

Garage Sale on the Main Street

Just hitting the road to get home when I spotted a garage sale on the main street with so many frames on display. It might be a good thing to check since I have been looking for frames for some pictures to display.

Outside their fence lined up big and small picture frames, different designs, shapes and sizes. First frame that attracted me was the real wood, oval shaped frame with a picture of painted flowers in a pink matte. It looked use but for $10.00, it will be a good buy. On the other side of the fence, clustered 3 pieces, 1 medium size and 2 small frames in metallic paint and also cost $10.00 for all. These are those common print for display mostly seen in houses. Well, I can change the print when tired of it, my thought. Then a frame with the last supper print is standing next with a Hecho en Mexico mark on back of frame is what I have been looking for a while, even thought of painting it myself but with nothing to copy with, it will take me years to paint one myself. I was grinning at myself at the moment because I was being ambitious, dreaming of becoming a famous painter one day. Or maybe I'll be famous painting houses someday, who knows??? Hah! It will probably take me years to do that...or maybe when I'm dead as most painters becomes famous when they are already dead.

Anyway, as I was loading all the frames, remembered that my husband was looking for a big frame for his motorcycle print and even went to the gallery to inquire how much it would cost him to frame that cheap print days ago. When I heard about it, told him to wait a little longer and I'll find him a frame in one of those garage sale and here it is, Perfect size for his motorcycle print.
For all the frames, I paid $39.00, seems high to me but better than buying at a gallery which might cost me 4 or five times more.

You've got Checks! $3995.25 Check from Modern USA Insurance Co

You got Checks! $3995.25 Check from Modern USA Insurance Co

A week ago, I was surprised to opened a mail with an enclosed check amounting to $3995.25. The check is from Modern USA Insurance Co, with address 7785 66th Street North Pinellas Park, FL 33781 and issued from Sun Trust Bank with the address 300 1st Ave South St., Petersburg , FL 33701. No clue.

With the check is another sheet with all the information regarding the check. The front page include section A - Customer Service Evaluation Tool, and section B - Transfer the sum of $3,200.00 to only one of the mystery shoppers below: Clarnita Leonard. The back page is a breakdown of how the enclosed check is to be disbursed.

Looking at the check, the amount shows $3,995.25 and wonder why they send me extra and have to send a check to someone else. Why not just send two separate checks to both of us? So, I googled Modern USA and wants to know if a company exists and found none. Hmmm...something fishy here.

Out of curiosity, I called a friend and told her about it. She has a different version. She advertised in craiglists offering piano lessons for $25.00 a month , one hour per session. That sounds good. Two days later, she got an email of someone interested to sign up his little boy for piano lessons. She emailed back and they exchange phone number and talk to each other. My friend however suggested that she wanted to meet the boy before starting the piano lessons so she can prepare better. No answer. The next day, she received a parcel from UPS from a certain "Greg" with an out of state address mailed to her. Out of curiosity, she opened it and found a check of $900.00 with instruction that she deduct the amount of 3 months piano lessons and the remaining balance to send to someone else. Boy, she was confused! Why would anyone send a check worth more than the piano lesson fees. She went to the bank and inquire about it. They can't help her because the bank can't really tell if the check has money until it's cleared. She end up reporting it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Another friend has another story to tell. She received an email offering a part time job with an easy work and good pay. All she needs to do is receive the checks coming and deposit them on her account. She gets 10% of the amount. According to the "company", they need a liaison here in the U.S. to receive their foreign checks because the "company" is based in China. OK. That sounds an easy part time job. 2 days later, she received a mail with $97,000.00 check in it pay to the order of her name of course. Along with it is to call a person to inform the checks arrived and a phone number to call. It happens that she is a chinese, so she thought it will be easy to talk to a chinese person like her. Well, the person who answered the phone has a chinese name but can't even speak a chinese word. Ha! That sounds funny...The "person" on the other line instructed her to deposit the money in her account and to wait for instructions. Few days later, she received an email instructing her to send a check to a certain company in Canada for some freight charges the "company" needs to pay. Now my friend is getting suspicious. She emailed back and ask for receipts, just for security measures. It took a long time for them to email back with a receipt with a U.S. address with the items bamboo living room set for $97,000.00. You think a bamboo dining sent would cost that much?

Well, I have come back to my senses and realized this check is not worth anything but a piece of paper from some people who want to make money the easy way. Actually, there is a name who to call and a phone number. Julie Philips or David Anderson at 1-514-638-8128 and you can also fax to 1-404-745-0740.

I am sure there are a lot of stories like this especially with the economy's turndown. Your gut will tell you the truth and always ask when it involves money in your account.

Difference between a Passport and a Visa

A passport is required for everybody who plan to travel from one country / nation to another country / nation. Everybody means everybody, no exceptions, young and old, professional, military personnel, athletes, business people, students, workers, entertainers, children, parents and anybody who has a plan to travel.

A passport is an identification of your nationality and states what country you are from.

A Passport bears your picture, your name, date of birth, sex, place of birth, where the passport was issued, issue date and expiration date of the passport. Different countries / nations have different rules on passport.

The holder of a passport will be allowed to travel internationally with or without a visa depending on the country of entry or port of entry. It is best to apply a new passport if your passport is expiring within 6 months before you travel as some countries / nations might deny you entry.

Passports can be confusing to new applicants as there are different kinds of passport issued by each country. Some of the types are - Non-citizen, Citizen of the said nation / country, diplomatic, travel document and other passport type. Passports are issued by the government of the country that you are a citizen of or if you are given a special privilege in that country to hold a passport through marriage, employment or residency reasons to name a few. The holder of a passport will be allowed to travel internationally with or without a visa depending on the country of entry or port of entry. Always keep your passport safe as it can be a hassle to apply a passport while away from your country of origin.

A visa is a documentation for you to be able to enter a certain country in a specific time. Visas are issued by the country you are planning to visit. Before planning a travel, it is best to inquire from the country of entry whether a visa is needed or unnecessary for your type of passport. Visas are sometimes attached to your passport, stamped, glued or a separate piece of documentation with the same information as your passport. Most important is to take note of the given dates on the visa document - time to travel, expiration and length of time allowed to stay. Doing so will save you trouble, you don't pay any penalty if you stayed too long and keep your visa safe. Visas varies and will be good for a number of days, months and years that allows a traveler to travel within the given date.

Some countries do not require visa for some passport holder depending on what type of passport you are holding. However, a few countries still requires a visa for any traveler to enter their country.

Few travel examples:

a.) U.S. passport holder can travel to mostly anywhere in the world but requires a visa to enter China.

b.) Philippine Passport holder do not need a visa to enter Hong Kong

c.) Taiwan passport holder need a visa to get in Hong Kong, Brazil, Autralia, U.S.

d.) Taiwan Passport holder do not need a visa to get in Singapore

e.)U.S. Passport holder do not need a visa to get in Philippines with allowed 21 days maximum stay.

f.) U.S. Passport holder do not need a visa to enter New Zealand and Australia.

Some countries do not require a visa if you are staying for a few days only - 14 days or less. This all depends on what country of entry, what passport you are holding and the relationship between the two countries - departing country / nation and arriving country / nation.

Visas also come in different forms from tourist visa, immigration visas, business visa, work visa, student visa and each type of visa has its own application process and different fees to pay.

It is also possible to apply for visas while in a foreign country. Let's say a Taiwan passport holder who travels to Australia and stayed for a few months to enjoy the beautiful Australia can apply a visa to be able to travel to Brazil. What is interesting in this situation is that you don't have to go back to your country of residence in order to travel to your next destination which is Brazil and it is a long way to go. It is like going around the globe in a matter of days. Lastly, remember to bring enough money to spend while visiting different places.